The whole bit about her not having success in school . . . If you’re not here to observe how she is—but I am. And [Melanie] seems content. She seems fine. It’s almost like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Melanie’s teachers think her school experience could be much improved if, among other things, Ms. Handlon would comply more consistently with the universalistic, bureaucratic rules of school. Ms. Nettles, in particular, is annoyed by the fact that Melanie habitually arrives late to class. With unusual directness, she complains about this to Ms. Handlon during the parent-teacher conference:
She comes in very late. She usually is the last one here. I mean, I don’t even mark her absent any more . . . But some kids are here as early as ten minutes to nine, so if she’s coming at ten after they’ve already had a twenty-minute head start. So, maybe just getting [Melanie here and] started a little bit earlier would be helpful.
Similarly, Ms. Nettles is dismayed by Ms. Handlon’s failure to follow up with the paperwork necessary to get Melanie tested for learning disabilities. She reveals her frustration in a comment to the researcher after the parent-teacher conference has concluded:
I mean, I really pushed and stressed to [Ms. Handlon] to have [Melanie] tested because I think she does have a lot of learning problems. And we must have had those forms home to her like a month ago, and the last time I asked they still weren’t back.
The elementary school has an on-site reading specialist; she works with Melanie three times a week. It shocks Ms. Nettles that Ms. Handlon has never met this resource teacher.
Most people who have their child seeing a reading specialist will make it a point to set up conferences. I mean, Nita is doing as many conferences because she meets with many different grade levels—and it’s like that never occurred to her. I mean, [Melanie’s] been seeing her for two years. Don’t you think you’d want some feedback?
Ms. Nettles is certain that Ms. Handlon knows Melanie sees the reading specialist each week; when Melanie’s absences mount up, her mother explicitly inquires about the reading material her daughter needs to review. In Ms. Nettles’s opinion, it is Melanie’s mother’s duty to arrange a meeting with the reading specialist. Moreover, she feels that it is Ms. Handlon, not the resource teacher, who should be responsible for taking the initiative to request such a meeting.
In addition to failing to meet the teachers’ expectations in some areas, Ms. Handlon is not always successful in her efforts to forge a closer connection between family and school because the educators view her actions as misguided or pointless. For instance, Ms. Nettles dismisses as simply “odd” Ms. Handlon’s special trip to school with Melanie for a brief visit on the first day so that her daughter could meet her new teacher. The teacher also questions the legitimacy of the illnesses that prompt Melanie’s many absences.
Ms. Nettles describes Melanie’s mother as “defensive” and preoccupied with things like whether or not past and present teachers have been sufficiently supportive of Melanie’s self-esteem. These concerns, the teacher feels, prevent Ms. Handlon from paying attention to other, arguably more important, issues (such as having Melanie tested for learning disabilities). After the parent-teacher conference, Ms. Nettles remarks to the researcher, “I don’t think she was really listening.” Most of Melanie’s problems, Ms. Nettles suggests, may be traced to Ms. Handlon’s overprotective parenting style:
Mom has consistently been putting things off and making excuses for Melanie since day one. I mean, Melanie was sick over thirty days last year. I think it’s a big step for her to be here. But, I think her mom is like, in denial. Melanie is having a very good year. Melanie is very happy, and I think a lot of Melanie’s problem is her mother.
Finally, Melanie’s teachers are not aware of either the amount or the frequency of Ms. Handlon’s efforts to help her daughter do her homework. They have no knowledge of the dramas that unfold in the Handlons’ dining room as Melanie and her mother tackle her assignments day after day.5
WHY ACTIVATING CAPITAL DOES NOT ALWAYS
YIELD PROFITS
The Handlons, a family with a solid middle-class position, engaged in concerted cultivation. Mr. Handlon had a master’s degree and had a managerial position; his wife had attended junior college. All of the children participated in many organized activities. To be sure, there were moments when Ms. Handlon issued directives, especially when frustrated while helping with Melanie with homework. But, although parent-child interactions are not elaborated in this chapter, for most of them, both parents engaged in the kind of reasoning and negotiation that was carried out in Alexander Williams’s home.6 Similar to Ms. Marshall, Ms. Handlon was well informed about school dynamics. Ms. Handlon believed that she had the right to intervene in her daughter’s experiences outside the home and, as we have seen, had many criticisms over school practices. Nonetheless, despite these resources, Ms. Handlon was unable to gain clear advantages for Melanie in the areas that were of greatest concern to her, namely, grading and homework. She did, however, succeed in customizing specific elements of Melanie’s educational experience: Ms. Nettles agreed to supply the spelling lists, to prepare materials for Melanie’s tutor to use, and to send home packets of exercises covering the curriculum Melanie missed during her frequent illness-related absences from school. But the benefits that she gained for her daughter were fewer than one might expect.7
As Pierre Bourdieu points out, the complex nature of social life means that multitudes of subtle skills are drawn on in the transmission of social class privilege. Accordingly, there are important variations in the effectiveness of parents’ efforts to activate cultural capital. Factors such as the shrewdness of the intervention, the degree to which the parent frames the complaint in a fashion that compels a response from the person in power, and the nature of the child’s difficulties each play a role. In the realm of education, there are at least three important reasons why the activation of cultural capital may fail. First, educators sometimes are not aware of middle-class mothers’ strenuous efforts to comply with school policies. They cannot be expected to grant privileges in return for actions they know nothing about. The children, however, are not only aware of their parents’ efforts but often feel oppressed by them. Despite being well-intentioned, parents’ interventions can create acute discomfort in their children and may decrease rather than stimulate students’ motivation to work hard in school. Thus, any advantages that might result in instances where educators do recognize parents’ capital can be negated by the children themselves. Second, educators frequently adopt a relatively rigid definition of what constitutes helpful behavior; parents’ actions that fall outside those bounds are ignored or discredited. Thus, parents who repeatedly fail to sign and promptly return to school the forms teachers send home, for example, are considered seriously remiss, regardless of their social class standing. Third, even with similar levels of class resources, some parents may be able to activate the resources more effectively than others. Although Stacey’s and Melanie’s mothers were equally devoted to their daughters, Ms. Marshall seemed to be able to make more headway than Ms. Handlon.